SOELDEN, Austria -- Daniel Albrecht led a Swiss one-two on Austrian soil when he won the opening race of the men's Alpine skiing season, a giant slalom, on Sunday.

The 25-year-old Albrecht, who was leading after the day's first run, resisted his rivals in the second and prevailed with a combined time of two minutes 15.78 seconds to take his third World Cup victory.

His compatriot Didier Cuche was second, 0.14 seconds behind, with American Ted Ligety, who won the discipline's World Cup last season, coming home third 1.25 seconds off the pace.

Austrian Benjamin Raich had to be content with fourth place in front of his home crowd a day after his compatriot Kathrin Zettel triumphed in the women's race.

"I have a little smile now because it's a victory on Austrian soil," Albrecht told reporters.

"This victory is more than I could hope and I hope I will be able to continue at this level. I think I made the difference in the first run, although Didier (Cuche) came back strongly in the second."

Cuche also had a bright smile on his face.

"I came here for a top-10 finish so being on the podium is something surprising," he said.

However, Cuche, who ended last season in second place in the overall standings, refused to get carried away.

"You cannot imagine how good it is for skiing in Switzerland, this one-two finish. But I won't do like last season, I'm not talking about the overall standings, I'll take it race by race."

Last year's overall World Cup winner Bode Miller of the United States made a costly mistake midway through the course and had to settle for 10th place.

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, making his return almost a year after suffering several fractures and a deep cut in his thigh in a crash during training, finished 13th in a race he won last season.

The men's World Cup now moves to Levi, Finland, for a slalom in three weeks.

By Manuele Lang
Reuters
Sun Oct 26, 2008

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